Allen D. Allen | God Behind the Movie Screen

I received a copy of this book from the author’s publicist in exchange for an honest review. I found this book to be a very fascinating read. It definitely makes you question a lot of your beliefs in regards to religion and science. I think this would be a good book to read with a book club because there are so many points that can be discussed/debated. God Behind The Movie Screen was a really interesting book, and I feel like I learned a lot. Thanks Allen! Looking forward to reading more of your work

I really enjoyed God Behind the Movie Screen. As a long time Christian and with having a major in Biology, this book took my beliefs to another level. I had always known that science does mix with religion. A lot of people try to make them both separate entities, but they do relate to each other. I think the author does a great job of presenting the information and showing that they do relate to one another in many ways. My views for science have deepened as I had mixed in my views of religion. I really liked how the author used popular movies to get the point across. It shows that some of these producers make out Christians to be not in the know, which was frustrating to find out. The author used many examples from recent films to help prove this point. I enjoyed this book and it brought to light many of the ways that science and religion relate to each other. I would not hesitate to recommend this book. It is very good and you can learn a lot from it.

I love insights about science and religion, but they are hard to reconcile at times. Sometimes, modern science is hard for Christians to justify in light of the Bible. Allen uses movies to show this example and makes some insightful points that combat a denial of scientific facts. I enjoyed Allen’s sense of humor, and his ability to describe and explain many seemingly unrelated parts of human history, biology, sociology and more. His thoughts on Revelations and also on how to make scientific fact more palatable to Christian believers are truly thought-provoking if at times controversial.

This review is from: God Behind the Movie Screen: Movies Show Us How Remedial Science Can Make Judeo-Christian Faiths Safer and Saner (Kindle Edition)

This is a unique and very intriguing book. It made me really stop and rethink about how science and religion really do counter each other. The movie references made it clear and easy to comprehend the author’s point. I found it to be engaging and very though provoking and I did enjoy it. The touch of humor is delightful and made it a fun book. The details using scripture and movie scenes really were an eye opener for me. I have heard some of the history questioned, such as the moon walk being staged and I still have to shake my head at times. Some doubt the obvious and others believe the bizarre. I love the style of the author Allen. D. Allen and his keen sense of his open mind. I highly recommend this book to everyone.

This review is from: God Behind the Movie Screen: Movies Show Us How Remedial Science Can Make Judeo-Christian Faiths Safer and Saner (Kindle Edition)

God Behind the Movie Screen is a great book for anyone who has doubts about their beliefs. Much of the reason people turn away from god is science, just as many religious people tend to deny scientific discoveries that do not correlate with the Bible. Allen does a great job of showing both sides that they can get along, that God and science can coexist and both be truth. Allen emphasizes the influence that movies have on our beliefs and the affect that they can have on society when they use artistic liberty to disguise scientific ignorance. Allen is clearly disturbed by how little people care about scientific truth in the media and by the ignorance of many Christians when it comes to scientific accuracy. He brings scientific theorems and uses them in conjunction with Christian teachings to show readers that it is important to consider both truths and respect the place for both in society. God Behind the Movie Screen is an interesting, thought provoking book and a must-read for anyone who has been haunted by the why’s of life and spirituality. Allen gives a compelling argument for incorporating both physical truth and religious belief in your life in order to reach a more complete understanding of such a complex world.

This review is from: God Behind the Movie Screen: Movies Show Us How Remedial Science Can Make Judeo-Christian Faiths Safer and Saner (Kindle Edition)

I really enjoyed reading God Behind the Movie Screen, it’s a fascinating book. Allen uses the gratuitous scientific ignorance in movies, as opposed to dramatic license, to explain why some parts of the Bible are understood and some parts aren’t, the latter creating ideas that can be both dangerous and sacrilegious. This book is thought-provoking, educational, and a must-read. God Behind the Movie Screen will appeal to liberal-to-moderate Christians, as well as fans of science/science fiction. If you like pondering the universe and our place in it, you’ll love this book.

This review is from: God Behind the Movie Screen: Movies Show Us How Remedial Science Can Make Judeo-Christian Faiths Safer and Saner (Kindle Edition)

I somewhat enjoyed this book. Basically author Allen D. Allen tries to communicate two messages, that scientists can believe in God and that people who believe in God should not deny what science has proven. Allen uses movies to attempt to prove his point. On the positive side, Allen is against science denial and tries to wrap theories like quantum mechanics and evolution into a biblical framework. On the other hand, he does a poor job of convincing scientists that they should believe in God. The book is a reasonable attempt to help believers accept science and I recommend this book for all science deniers. On the other hand, scientists could read the book (ignoring some of the scientific inaccuracies) to understand that being religious does not mean denying science .

I looked into this book at one AM intending to get a flavor for the contents, and read it later at the gym while treadmilling. But I did not put it down until 3 AM by which time I had finished reading. How can a subject like this be such a page turner? Well, it is NOT because the author rants on one point of view or the other like ALL the other books you might have encountered on religion and science or religion and movies or science and movies, or any similar combination. It is light, fascinating, personal, even funny. The author uses Deuteronomy 2 to illustrate that even the most literal of believers picks and chooses which scripture to “take literally” based on what’s expected and accepted and thought to be true or useful in their own time and culture. But the author finds the fault with our own ignorance, both then and now, not with the inspired moral lessons, and proceeds to quote scientific studies that children need limits to be set, or, or what? The author is very polite about it but the thought that occurred to me is they will grow up to be scriptural literalists, inconsiderate of other people’s feelings, convert to Islam, take chapter 9 of the Koran’s compulsion to kill all non-Muslims literally, and fight their own kind to the death. It’s not like the world does not have a problem with people doing this. But Allen does not ponder the weighty question any further. It moves on in humorous and irreverent tones to explain how stories, to be popular and believed, incorporate common “knowledge” of the culture at the time of the story. That knowledge changes. Even the scientific truths we read in the book will be replaced by others, I suspect. So the book is an example of its own point. I thought I knew everything about this subject, frankly, and was reading the book on request (though I bought my own copy). I did think the angle of using movie examples sounded interesting. Boy was I surprised. Right away the author unifies both principle points of view on Revelation, that it is a book about events of the time of its writing, and the nature of its applicability today, while leading the reader away from numerology and looking for fatalistic omens. A very healthy approach. Not even pausing for breath, the advantage to our ancestors of having a roll of fat around the waist is dropped into our laps. Something I’d never thought of and you probably haven’t either. But it’s not a collection of interesting facts, either. Allen links this to the ability of humans to be revived bodily after death! But Allen obviously doesn’t think that is all there is to it. He has had an epiphany. I’ll let him tell you…